Politics Aside…A Brief Explanation On How To Address The Bush-era Tax Cuts

Taxes are never popular, and for the record, government is perhaps the most ill-suited entity to be spending money as there is.  Government has the power to raise money through taxation and other means.  It spends money it does not earn in ways that rarely maximize the potential benefit, with the primary risk being political, not financial.  In other words, there is waste, personal enrichment and political bribery with little to no consequence, when government taxes and spends money.  Still, we need a militia, roads, water systems and emergency services.  Most of the rest could be done away with, or very greatly minimized and addressed through the marketplace in my opinion.

Obama and the Democrats want to keep the tax cuts in place for all but those earning $250,000 or more. This will apparently raise $700 billion – $1 trillion in the next couple of years. The Republicans contend jobs and our fragile economic recovery will greatly suffer if the tax cuts expire because many individuals have business income that lands on their personal income tax returns.  And business is the engine that runs the economy.  It’s a valid point.

There’s an entity called a Limited Liability Company (LLC).  This form of business is best suited for small-to-midsized businesses.  The net profit of an LLC shows up on the owner’s personal tax return.  So, instead of paying a corporate income tax and then a personal income tax, income tax is only levied at the personal level.  So, even though that money shows on a personal income tax return it’s not like it goes into the owner’s personal bank account.  It will mostly rest in a business account and be used to run the company and fund future operations.

If everyone is serious and we want to stop playing games on both sides, then we should simply grandfather existing LLC’s into the bill, and let the tax cuts expire only for those whose personal incomes exceed the $250,000 threshold.

This will generate a great deal of revenue from those who can afford to pay it, without harming the engine driving our economic recovery, which is small business.

I’m staunchly anti-tax, but until we get spending under control we will either fleece our own people, or America will soon come with a tag that says, “Owned by China.”

And last, although it’s an on-going journey, there were all sorts of issues that simply came into alignment when Jesus swept across the barren landscape of my broken heart and brought new life.  I firmly believe that if we will humble ourselves as a nation before the Lord, through our political leaders, that many insurmountable issues we face as a nation will simply take care of themselves.  There is a much better way, and the Creator of the universe, the One who saves men’s souls has the answers.

God bless you.

Silent Night…

Why was I listening to a Christmas carol this morning?  It’s Good Friday.  Nonetheless, there it was, a Christmas carol…on Good Friday.

Silent night, holy night

All is calm, all is bright

Round yon virgin, mother and Child

Holy infant so tender and mild

Sleep in heavenly peace…O’ sleep in heavenly peace

…Shepherds quake at the sight

Glory stream from heaven afar,

Heavenly hosts sing, “Hallelujah!”

Christ the Savior is born.

…Son of God, Love’s pure light

Radiant beams from thy face

With the dawn of redeeming grace

Jesus, Lord at thy birth

The glory of that night did herald great hope.  “All is calm, all is bright.”  Literally, glory streamed from heaven, as angels proclaimed His coming to a handful of lowly shepherds.  For that night “redeeming grace” was released into the earth as God the Son, Christ the Savior, took on the frame of fallen man and made His way, just like us, into our existence.  And Love, true Love, like the springs of the deep, broke forth and flowed into our world.

Fast forward 33 years.

It is once again…night.  But this night is anything but calm.  Heavenly peace has been scattered.  There is no light.  A foreboding darkness has descended upon the land, and men’s hearts.  The old man Simeon saw it as he blessed the Child and gave glory to God in the temple.   The sword he spoke of was about to pierce Mary’s soul, even as she would watch another pierce her Son.

Once again, in the night, there is silence.  But it is not the stilled calm of heavenly peace.  It is the silence of heaven, as the doors of glory shut tight.  For now, God the Father is about to take all His wrath, all His fury, bound up to punish the sins of mankind, and pour it out on His own sinless Son, Jesus.  It is not fair.  How could You do that?   Still, in the darkness love is not dead.  It is doing its greatest work.

I long to see You Jesus…face-to-face.  This morning my heart yearns for Your return.  I long, with weeping, for the solace of Your touch, Your redemptive power to still the storms that blow across the ocean of my heart.

The signs of foreboding darkness abound in this very hour upon the earth.  The tentacles of the world system reach ever deeper into our lives.  The day is not far off when a leader will rise up in cunning and deceit.  He will make a few decrees that chain us to his way.  The cost of separation will be very great, especially for those who have not begun to prepare.  In fact, it will be too great.  To their eternal peril most will turn their backs on the God of the cross, because in their thinking, there are many paths that lead to heaven, or more practically, they have no other choice.  “Besides, God loves me.  He understands my child needs health care.  And we have to have food.  Thank you God, for this man.”  My heart mourns for this very great eternal loss of men’s souls.

Still, God has a glorious remnant.  He always has a glorious remnant.  And those who yield their all will rise up and do great exploits in the midst of this very great darkness.  This will be the finest hour for fiery faith, unquenchable hope, and conquering love to be displayed.

And so, this morning I come, deeply aware of my frailty, and the limp with which I walk,  mourning for Your return, seeing more about this hour on the earth than I sometimes want to, unearthing fear, yet finding courage too, and reaching for the conquest found only in the power of Your love.

This morning, Jesus, I bring it all to the only place where it can make sense, the only place where it can all be properly dealt with.

I bring it to Your Cross.

Thank you, Jesus.

Journey Into Haiti

This is a follow-up on our deployment to Haiti from February 14-28, following the devastating earthquake that claimed around 230,000 lives.  It is a bit longer than I intended, but  I needed to write it. Hopefully, you will find it interesting, edifying and encouraging.

What can I say?  Wow!  First, I want to give thanks to the Lord for His faithful leading, and to those who provided faithful prayers and financial support.  Our entire team watched as He led us, used us, confronted us with the reality of His heart, and sometimes the reality of our own hearts.

The Most Impacting Part of the Journey

No question about it, the most impacting part of this deployment was seeing the light of Christ in the faces of the Haitian believers, many of whom had lost some or all of family, limb, home, friends, jobs and more.  I believe we were eye-witnesses to how the Church will carry her heart when the end-times judgments of God are released upon the earth, and it was in the hearts of the Haitian believers.  Though still embroiled in the aftermath of this disaster, they cling to hope, their faith is strong, there is light in their eyes, and they carry their hearts in love, without offense toward God or others.

While nations with the most difficult socio-economic circumstances are called “3^rd world,” Haiti is often referred to as a “4^th world” nation.  I now understand why.  It is a beautiful island broken by a corrupt government, terrible infrastructure, a heavy spirit of poverty tied to a history of slavery, and a spiritual darkness maintained primarily by the extensive practice of voodoo.  It is not maintained, is dirty beyond belief (in the areas I saw), and now because of the earthquake physically beaten down as well.  The smell of death and decay still rises from the ruins in parts of Port-au-Prince. Tent cities are everywhere.  One evening after dark, as we returned from working at a hospital, the sound of truly angelic worship of four nurses arose in the back of our open truck.  As we drove through the city, the streets of Port-au-Prince were filled with thousands and thousands of the homeless, like ants in the shadows, lit only by car lights and trash fires in the streets.  The glorious worship and my weary body left my soul vulnerable and I was nearly overwhelmed.  Still, God has etched dignity in the soul of the Haitian.  They are a beautiful people.

What We Did – CDTI Hospital

Our team worked very hard.  While members of our team served at numerous hospitals and clinics, many of us served at a hospital called CDTI (a French acronym), where many seriously wounded were cared for.  I did patient transport, which meant stooping to the ground in a 100 degree tent, and moving say, a 170 lb. patient with severe injuries a few inches off their pallet (sometimes a cot), to a stretcher, maneuvering the stretcher inside the tent around pallets, people, tent poles, flaps and cords, while ensuring the patient’s IV was properly set and disentangled, and of course not dropping the patient, which thankfully we never did.  Once outside the tent the patient was placed on a gurney and wheeled to surgery or the emergency room for wound care and dressing changes.  There was so much grace for our backs.  I had some discomfort in my feet, but hardly any in my back from lifting patients like that – all day long.  The Lord really sustained us.  Patients would come out of major orthopedic surgery and go directly to a pallet with some foam on top, in the tent they might share with eight other patients in the parking lot.  It seemed to me to be a step or two above battlefield medicine.   One day there were medical teams from eight nations working together.  As a former hospital administrator, it was amazing to watch the various doctors, surgeons and caregivers navigate language barriers, and other obstacles to get the job done.   The hospital had close to 100% weekly turnover in its daytime staff.  I still just shake my head when I think about it.

In the midst of our work and despite the language barrier – I dabbled in French, Spanish and Creole  – we prayed, laughed, and sometimes held our patients.  One day a man from our team needed a translator to help him as he led a patient to the Lord.  When finished, the translator turned around and said, “I want to know Him too,” which was awesome in itself.  I put this on Facebook and a former classmate in Michigan saw it and shared it with a friend doing prison ministry there.  He shared it with the prisoners, and that night many of the prisoners rededicated their lives to Christ.  Only God!

What We Did – Quisqueya Christian School Compound

Our primary responsibility was to provide support for the base camp where we stayed.  It was home to 250-300 physicians and nurses.  Often nurses would function as doctors.  Quisqueya had become a clearinghouse for providing staff to several hospitals and clinics in the area.  We helped ensure the compound was cleaned and maintained, helped unload medical and other supplies, and also cleaned the kitchen and served breakfast each day.  Scrubbing toilets was not glamorous.  But clean toilets helped draw health care workers, and health care workers saved lives.

We also ministered to the students at Quisqueya which is a boarding school.  We taught Bible classes, and each night had a time of worship outside which the children began to wait for.  On numerous occasions team members visited several tent cities nearby and met many desperately impoverished people hungry for our prayers and the love of God.

Several times we felt tremors and one night experienced an earthquake (4.7) that emptied all the buildings.  It was a little unnerving, but turned out to be a beautiful night to sleep under a canopy of stars.

What We Did – Leogane Orphanage

Leogane was the epicenter of the earthquake, with 90%-95% destruction of the city.  It is also home to the national board of voodoo priests.  On the edge of Leogane was an orphanage that also had a school and a hospital/clinic.  All were destroyed.  Yet miraculously none of the orphans were hurt because they were in a field when the earthquake struck.  They have relocated to another property and are living in tents on bare ground.  We helped demolish a building made of concrete, rebar and cinderblock, with two sledge hammers, two regular hammers, a few buckets, two hacksaws, a rotary saw, and a pair of pliers.  John Henry and Paul Bunyan would’ve been proud.  I’m just glad we had angels instead of OSHA.  Now what remains is a cleared concrete slab for the orphans to pitch tents on and get off the ground during the rainy season.  Also, tents were raised to re-establish the clinic.

The Daniel Academy in Haiti and Zimbabwe

I met with the pastor who oversees the orphanage regarding their school.   Before the earthquake they had 600 students.  There is no education taking place right now.  I believe The Daniel Academy (which Mary and I helped start and now help lead) will have a presence in Haiti in the near future.  Another connection came when a Jamaican woman who runs a school outside Port-au-Prince was led by the Lord to Traverse City, Michigan.  The timing for her was terrible, but she obeyed just the same.  Bob Fraser, who co-founded TDA with his wife, Lauren, leads the Joseph Company marketplace ministry.  He was doing a JOCO event in Traverse City and she ended up there.  As he told the TDA story she burst into tears.  She ended up coming to Kansas City and visiting our school.  It certainly seems something may develop there as well.  Please be in prayer for us.  Contemplating international education in the midst of disaster is, well, interesting.

At The Daniel Academy we have been in a process to bring selected orphans from Zimbabwe to Kansas City for several weeks of leadership and spiritual development, on an annual basis, over a period of years, with the goal of shaping future leaders of that nation. Some of our representatives were there while I was in Haiti.  The organization we are connected with in Zimbabwe decided to open several Daniel Academies there.  I don’t have exact numbers, but I think there are two schools and 10 preschools opening under The Daniel Academy name with the same vision and values the Lord has given us!

Besides Kansas City, there are TDA’s in South Dakota, Atlanta, and now Zimbabwe.  The Lord is smiling upon our hard work and humble offering.  In May we will have completed our third year of school.

The Hour In Which We Live

In our CRI training we talk about the judgments of the Lord being poured out, and how this is not in any way a contradiction to His love.  It is one of the most difficult issues for any believer to truly come to terms with.   How do you reconcile the idea that when death and destruction are all around you, you are seeing the hand of love at work?  If you believe your entire Bible you understand that it can be no other way, even if your flesh screams otherwise, for God is love, and He releases judgments.  And His ways are not our ways.   In Matthew 24 events like this are described as “the beginning of sorrows.”  Other scriptures refer to these events as “birth pangs.”

One morning I wrote: “The Lord has released His judgment over the nation of Haiti, and it is this:  He loves the people of Haiti.  And His desire is for them.”

Again, thank you for your support and prayers.  There is so much more to tell, like how God said to, “Ask big,” and how He very specifically answered our prayers for massages and smoothies, eggs, specific weather patterns, laughter in our camp, and productivity in our labor on a certain day.  This is not exactly what I envisioned for my first visit to the Caribbean.  But the Caribbean in February, with intense purpose, is the best way to go.

Please pray for those in the earthquake zone.  I’ve never felt there is a real threat of disease spreading from unrecovered bodies due to the rain.  I think I’m a minority of one.  However, there are so many people living in tents on the dirt.  And the increasingly heavy rains will cause tremendous problems with general living conditions.

God bless you.

P.S.  There was a gap of about $600 in sponsorship and expenses.  If you would like to help close this gap, it would be most appreciated.

You can make your tax-deductible check payable to:

International House of Prayer – KC

The mailing address is:

Joseph Gliserman, 10909 Troost Avenue, Kansas City, MO 64131

Thank you!

A Word for Today

Stay flexible.  Your friends will like you more, you’ll be happier, and you won’t pull as many muscles.  

- Gumby

Photo Essay of Earthquake Aftermath in Port-au-Prince

This is a stunning set of photographs displaying the love, hope and utter desperation all playing out in Haiti right now.  Come, Lord Jesus.  Come.  Now.

Deep Down, You Do Know

No matter what he believes, the echo of eternity resounds in the heart of every man.

Where Is God in Haiti?

Where is God when the crisis hits?  Maybe it’s the sentence of cancer, a miscarriage, heart attack, rape, military invasion, a phone call at 2 am, your world literally crumbling around you.

Maybe it’s the chronic pain of a life shattered by divorce, years of loneliness and depression, addiction, or long-term mental or physical illness.

“However, the colossal efforts to help Haiti are proving inadequate because of the scale of the disaster and the limitations of the world’s governments. Expectations exceeded what money, will and military might have been able to achieve so far in the face of unimaginable calamity.

“God has abandoned us! The foreigners have abandoned us!” yelled Micheline Ursulin, tearing at her hair as she rushed past a large pile of decaying bodies.

Three of her children died in the quake and her surviving daughter is in the hospital with broken limbs and a serious infection.”  – msnbc.com  1/20/10

Where is God in all of this?

In the moment, our hearts, and the circumstances of our lives may overwhelm any theology or claims of understanding we carried an hour before.  The question that resounds across the ages is, “WHY?”  The truth is, the answer is complex.  And often, in the personal sense, we simply don’t know “why.”

Just the same, there are some things we can understand.

We live in a fallen, broken world, a world marred by sin.   It’s hard to argue that especially since 9/11, nearly everything about our earthly existence hasn’t become more difficult and uncertain.

The Bible uses the term “birth pangs.”  Any woman who has given birth knows the reality of contractions that increase in frequency and intensity until all she can do is cry out in pain.  The “birth pangs” of scripture refer to the time leading up to the “great tribulation” which ends with the return of Christ coming as King of the earth, both spiritually and geopolitically.  “Birth pangs” and “great tribulaton” are global terms, because if your family was crushed in an earthquake, or your son swept away in a tsunami, your “great tribulation” is now.

God is love.  Not just loving.  Not just kind.  And certainly not a humanistic being reaching out to help others in a failed attempt to satisfy a deeper longing hidden in His heart.  But God is the very substance of love itself.  Oh that we would fully embrace the work of the cross and walk in the fullness of the transforming power of love.  Love changes everything.

God is a God of justice.  I used to read that as “God is a God of retribution and punishment.”  But I now more clearly understand He desires that no one perish, and that His justice is filled with mercy.  His vindication means my rescue.

Vindication through justice also means that God is making the wrong things right.  God does dispense discipline.  And sometimes it seems really harsh.  But it is always unto good, our good.  And it is always dispensed in the context of mercy and love, true elements of His glory.

While the war was won and victory secured for the people of God on the cross of Calvary, right now a battle still rages in the cosmos.  It is the epic battle of all time between good and evil, light and dark, right and wrong, life and death.   And we’re all caught in the crossfire.  The cross of Christ is the ultimate proof of God’s love, and His weapon of conquest.  Somehow this drama that plays out in our everyday existence is our preparation to become fully who He has already made us to be, our deepest, truest selves, rooted and grounded in Him.  It is in this place that we can most fully behold His glory, His goodness.  And God values this so much that He is willing to allow pain, even great pain, into our lives.  When we reach that place we will come into full agreement with Him on this point, no matter how much we have suffered.

And so today, where is God for Micheline Ursulin?

He is near.  He sees your pain that runs so deep all you can do is pull your hair and scream, “Forsaken!”  Jesus cried the same words.  He sees the demons that haunt your soul, the poverty that frames your life.

He is calling out to you today Micheline.  He calls you His beloved, His precious child.  He extends forth peace in the midst of your storm, and wraps you even now in the comfort of His embrace.

Micheline, I pray that today your eyes will be opened to see, your heart opened to know; that you will really encounter His love, His embrace, forever.

I leave for Haiti on February 5.  Please pray.

I AM DEPLOYING TO HAITI ON FEB. 5

Dear Friends,

I am writing to ask for your assistance with prayer covering, and raising $1,500, as I prepare for a 10-day deployment on February 5, to aid the earthquake victims of Haiti.  The death toll is now estimated at 200,000.

 In 2004, a year before we moved to Kansas City, I received a prophetic word saying that I would be part of an emergency team going out during major disasters that sees the flood of the Lord in different places.  In 2007, Crisis Response International (CRI), a Kansas City-based ministry was formally launched by Sean and Laura Malone.  The Lord placed Sean at the epicenter of the 9/11 attacks in Manhattan and Hurricane Katrina.  In 2009, Emily Grace and I did extensive training with CRI.  In addition to search & rescue and first responder medical aid, CRI also provides meals, chaplaincy, communications and other forms of support for disaster victims as well as local aid workers, who often go without to serve those with greater need.  All this occurs in the context of on-going worship and intercession through CRI’s on-site mobile House of Prayer.  This is an exceptional organization, with exceptional people.

On the afternoon of January 12, a major earthquake hit the nation of Haiti. On January 14, CRI dispatched an advance team to secure a location for a base-camp.  The Lord is opening doors and has already extended great favor. Though she truly performed above and beyond during training, we feel Emily, who is 15, should not deploy at this time because of the instability and early stage of this disaster.  I have attached an excerpt of an update I received today (January 18).

 Greetings!   

The advance team has been on the ground now for 4 days…Our base camp is operating on a 5 acre compound. Because of the instability of the situation we have been praying over the issue of security. I believe the Lord answered our prayers by providing us with the General of the US Army Southern Division who will now share the compound with us and will certainly make relief efforts easier.  

 …Today we responded to locals who were getting text messages from people who were still trapped under rubble. We were able to with the help of French search and rescue teams locate 2 survivors. Many more were beyond help.  As I write this update my clothes still stink of rotting flesh.

Team 2 (which includes a number of our students from The Daniel Academy here in KC) will be arriving tomorrow night to set up the main pillars of the camp…

The relief efforts will be continuing for quite some time. We want to thank everyone for their continued prayer and support. I believe we will see God do amazing things through His church here in Haiti, and we are trusting we will see the harvest come in.

Please check the website http://www.criout.com for more information.

Blessings,
Sean Malone
Crisis Response International

Make your tax-deductible donation payable to:  

International House of Prayer – KC

Mailing Address:      

Joseph Gliserman,  10909 Troost Avenue,  Kansas City, MO 64131

Please email me at josephgliserman@ihop.org if you have specific questions or would like additional information.  Your prayers and support are greatly appreciated!

Why It Matters

Creationism bestows inherent and immense dignity upon mankind and his place in God’s created order.  Man’s place is secure and unchanging for the very reason that it has been ordained and established by God.

Evolution robs mankind of his inherent dignity and value, and leaves him to establish those things for himself, based on arbitrary measures of performance or contribution.  Thus men are left forever trying to “attain to,” and ultimately become the God that their folly has led them to reject.

The High Cost of Christmas

Her calling, the opportunity extended to her by her God, was to be marked with shame; defined by misunderstanding; beheld for harlotry in betrothal.

In return for her “yes” Mary would bear the maker of heaven and earth, the Holy One of Israel, God made flesh, a bastard-child in the eyes of men.

His bride-in-waiting came to him, now pregnant, though their relationship had never transgressed such boundaries.   Joseph’s heart was shattered.  But because of love, and a desire to extend dignity and grace, he determined to quietly put her away so as not to return the great shame that had been heaped upon him.  Yet he had every right to trumpet her sullied reputation because of her presenting state.

Before he could proceed an angel came to Joseph in a dream and said to take Mary as his wife.   Such a decision meant he too would be marked with shame, deemed weak, and without honor, as he entered into marriage with a pregnant girl.  At best he would be viewed as one forced into it because he refused to honor God and this young girl during their betrothal.  Why marry her now?   “…for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.”  “…for He will save His people from their sins.”

Really, what could Joseph do with that?  Pregnant?  Of the Spirit of God?  How could he even begin to process such a thought, even if an angel did speak it?  It crossed such sacred boundaries, and obliterated most everything he knew about God, and the human body.  Yet, somehow he was able to make passage through the storm that assailed his heart.

We know how it turned out.  The young virgin, Mary, said to the angel Gabriel, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord.  Let it be to me according to your word.”  And Joseph bent his will, at great cost, to come under God’s.

Later, all this would be confirmed, though not necessarily received by the masses, as lowly shepherds were visited by Gabriel, accompanied by an angelic choir they all saw and heard.

God’s word promises us that if we walk with Him rightly we will suffer.  In the natural it is the pinnacle of the Christian faith.  What has been the cost of your “yes?”  He sees it.  He understands.  In spite of the storms that come out of nowhere and invade our souls and our lives, reworking, dismantling and sometimes tearing apart the pieces we have so carefully assembled, He wants us to trust Him, for He is near.

This Christmas, regardless of your circumstances, may God bless you with grace, peace, hope, love and joy.

“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”

- Matthew 1:23